Movie industry buzz

By Hugh Hart

October 15, 2014

Photo: Vern Evans / 20th Century Fox

Gustavo Santaolalla, composer for “The Book of Life” animated film.

Gustavo Santaolalla, composer for “The Book of Life” animated...

A few years after winning an Oscar for his melancholy “Brokeback Mountain” score, Gustavo Santaolalla has reversed direction to produce kid-friendly arrangements of “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and other peppy pop tunes for “The Book of Life.” Recruited by producer Guillermo del Toro, Santaolalla spices up writer-director Jorge R. Gutierrez’s animated comedy-adventure with Latin-flavored versions of top 40 hits along with his own lushly orchestrated themes.

“I’m always looking to connect with some other audience,” says Santaolalla. “The challenge with 'The Book of Life’ is that it’s designed to be a commercial spectacle that draws big audiences, but at the same time it’s talking about death, the Land of the Remembered — the dead — and the Land of the Forgotten — the underworld.”

Featuring the voices of Diego Luna and Zoe Saldana, “The Book of Life,” which opened Friday, follows a heroic musician through a supernatural south-of-the-border landscape. Santaolalla notes: “Because the film has a Mexican and Latin American setting, I got the opportunity to mix in some ethnic stuff through the use of six-eight rhythms and different timbres from things like accordion and the jarana jarocha. For me, that marks the most original side of the score.”

At the behest of del Toro, Santaolalla also penned a couple of original songs for “The Book of Life” with “Rainy Days and Mondays” lyricist Paul Williams. The two are now collaborating on a musical adaptation of “Pans Labyrinth.” Del Toro’s dark movie fairy tale, set during the Spanish Civil War, resonates for Santaolalla, who in 1978 fled his native Argentina to escape the country’s repressive regime.

Barrie Osborne produced Hollywood-financed blockbusters “The Matrix” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but he’s using Kickstarter to raise money for “Talk Is Cheap.”

The story follows a teenage girl who takes a vow of silence to protest lack of action on climate change; when her protest video goes viral, it sparks a worldwide revolution. Anyone who chips in $1 or more (via talkischeapmovie.com) earns an on-screen “Associate Producer” credit.

Osborne says, “'Talk Is Cheap’ illustrates the power of one voice to make a difference. Through social media, with the right message at the right time, you actually can change the world one person at a time.”

Affable actor Jason Schwartzman gets nasty as the title character in “Listen Up Philip.” The Brooklyn black comedy centers on an ill-tempered novelist who alienates photographer girlfriend (Elizabeth Moss) and nearly everyone else he comes into contact with. Schwartzman recalls, “When I started to read the script, my reaction was 'Oh my goodness, that’s a terrible thing to say!’ Then four pages later: 'Jeez, you can’t do that!’ It was very poor behavior.”

Still, something about the hyper-literate antihero drew Schwartzman in. He signed on for the role after meeting writer-director Alex Ross Perry in New York.

“It was more like a date actually,” Schwartzman laughs. “Early dinner, drinks, ice cream. Then strolling down the streets Alex asked me to do the movie. When I said yes, he said, 'That’s great because you are one of only two actors I had in mind.’ Of course, you immediately start thinking, 'Who’s the other actor?’ That seemed like such a 'Philip’ thing to say.”

After “Listen Up Philip” wrapped, Schwartzman noticed a change in his civilian life. “I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but I had two full-on verbal confrontations where I told someone exactly what was on my mind.”

He says. “I really let it rip, which I’d never done before in that way. I almost fainted, my legs got wobbly. It was insane.”